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New Oregon Pizza Joint Offers the Unusual |
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Covering 180 miles of Oregon coast travel: Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway, Garibaldi, Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Waldport, Yachats & Florence.
11/02/08
Secrets of the Season |
New Oregon Pizza Joint Offers the Unusual
(Nehalem,
Oregon) - The "mad pizza chef" of the north Oregon coast has
returned.
Phil Kaufman, former owner of a handful of businesses in the Nehalem Bay such as Guido's and The Edgewood, is back with a new incarnation of his crazed scientist-like experimentations with the Italian pie. This time, he has teamed up with local restaurant veteran Jeanne Wells for The Pizza Garden in Nehalem, which opened up this summer to rave reviews from locals along with a cajoling view of the Nehalem River. Kaufman’s out-of-the-box pizza thinking is paired with Wells’ sense of interior design, and the two now run what is becoming a culinary legend in the Nehalem Bay because of some unusual offerings.
Many of the regular pizza ingredients are irregular in the first place: not even in the Portland area will you find many pizzerias with toppings like meatballs, herbed lamb, chorizo, pastrami, carrots, cashews and other nuts, celery, smoked salmon, zucchini, mandarins or cheeses like smoked provolone, gorgonzola, ricotta feta, marscapone or montrachet.
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| The view of the river at The Pizza Garden. |
Kaufman co-founded the original Guido's in Wheeler back in 2005, which quickly became an Oregon coast favorite for his "designer pizzas," where customers would simply let Kaufman surprise them with a host of often wild, esoteric gourmet toppings. That tradition has again started at The Pizza Garden.
Guests set a budget, declare what ingredients they absolutely don’t want, and Kaufman coughs up some interesting experiments that make addicts out of customers. Pizza pies may arrive with blackened chicken, artichoke hearts, scrambled eggs, creamy garlic and horseradish sauce, a base of Dijon mustard and lemon, sweet and sour sauce or maybe spinach.
Many of these are specially purchased gourmet items that are not on the regular menu. They are set aside for the designer pizzas and the inventory changes every few days.
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| Size does matter at Pizza Garden: even the small pizzas are enormous. |
The out of the ordinary doesn’t stop there. The Pizza Garden also features gluten-free pizza dough for those allergic to wheat. Vegetables are organic and grown locally or in the Portland area, and most of the meats are free range, like the chicken and beef. The coffee is organic as well. Dough is made fresh each day, and most of the salad dressings are also house made.
The
Pizza Garden features pastas, enormous hoagie sandwiches (which are almost
as big as small pizzas) and lasagnas, all made from Kaufman’s own
sauces. The choice of sauces for the pastas and pizzas are unusual as
well: creamy garlic, pesto, rustico, creamy dill and herb and garlic for
the pizzas; and for the pastas there’s a Thai peanut sauce among
the more commonly known choices. There are also soups, an extensive selection
of salads and appetizers on the menu.
Even these hover in the gourmet area, such as the caprese ($7.95), which is mozzarella, tomato and basil drizzled with EV olive oil.
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| Nearby Manzanita: exploring these sights will make you hungry in no time. |
There are, of course, plenty of the usual ingredients such as pepperoni, pineapple, the commonly used marinara sauce bases, etc. Pizzas also come with preset selections in the usual categories, but also with rarely seen themes of vegan, hamburger, Tahitian or a New Orleans/Cajun-style pizza.
Wells has been in the north Oregon coast restaurant biz for the last two decades in various job descriptions. Kaufman has been in the area for 15 years.
The Pizza Garden delivers in the Wheeler, Nehalem and Manzanita area for an extra $3, and there is a beautiful river view while dining. Take out is also available. 35815 Highway 101 North, Nehalem, Oregon. 503-368-7675.
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